In scenes reminiscent of the best bits in ‘The Magnificent 7 ‘and ‘Avengers Assemble’ we arrived in Amsterdam on Friday 20th September with the exciting prospect of completing the Dam tot Damloop 10 mile race. This isn’t entirely accurate, however, as we arrived at different times, experienced frustrating flight delays and got confused with the signage at Schipol Airport. Stu and I arrived first and consoled ourselves with spending the first couple of hours in the hotel bar discussing knee surgery and the meaning of life. The others arrived close to midnight having paid for no part of the journey from the airport. Alice, and not for the last time during the weekend, failed to contribute to the Dutch economy with the classic accountant’s excuse: ‘I couldn’t see where to tap in’ and had to speak to a person in a machine to get out of the station!
But we had arrived at last and we excitedly looked forward to the prospect of completing the Amsterdam Bos Parkrun on the Saturday morning. We set off from the hotel having had about five hours sleep and moaning about not sleeping at all well on the first night somewhere new. Reassuringly there were no ‘wanted: have you seen these fare dodgers’ posters at the station and Alice was now proving to be a real whiz on her free transport app. On arriving we felt instantly invigorated by the beauty of the place and just how friendly all the organisers were; it really is one of the most attractive runs we have done. It is a flat course through woods, fields and past rivers and was an entirely memorable experience. Afterwards we enjoyed a very pleasant hour at the park café, drinking delicious coffee and eating tasty croissants, which, surprisingly, we all paid for. In the afternoon we headed into the city centre, by which time it had become very hot and was incredibly busy. We thought a boat tour would be a good use of our time and we were absolutely right, for as well as being very relaxing we learnt some fascinating facts. For instance, 25,000 bikes are fished out of the canals each year, there are as many bikes as people and the smallest house is a meter wide (which had everyone thinking about what you could actually do in such a small space!).
Tunners meanwhile took the opportunity to catch up on some well-earned sleep. In the evening, we ate in a local hotel and met Gareth and his family who were also taking part in various races on the Sunday.
And so to race day. We enjoyed a hearty breakfast which some of us paid for. By this stage Hannah- Mai was getting in on the act and she didn’t pay the 17 Euros for the food either or we think the local tourist tax. Beyond being arrested, the one major concern was that due to the heat, the organisers had started putting back start times. This was ok if you did not have a flight to catch but understandably, we were getting a bit worried. So, we hatched a plan. It was a simple plan: we were going to start in an earlier wave. Tunners and Bryn had thought up all sorts of ways to achieve this and none of these came to pass or can be repeated here but suffice it to say that in the end it was enough to briefly explain the situation, walk into the pen as if we owned it, and not look back.
We all had our plans for the race and I listened very carefully to Bryn ‘Yoda’ Reynolds’ sage, earnest advice about not starting too quickly and pacing myself, before shooting out of the blocks and down a very long, dark tunnel, which only became navigable after removing my sunglasses. It was a really nice, quite flat course and the locals were out in force with really vocal support and lots of water sprinklers. I love water on my sunglasses! By kilometre 13 I was beginning to think that forcing pins under my toenails would be less painful but it was great to finish and indeed participate in what is clearly a very important, popular event for the city.
We all had a fantastic weekend and I would thoroughly recommend a similar trip again next year. Finally, our thanks go to Gareth for coming up with the initial idea and providing information about the race, for Stu’s great support, even though he couldn’t race, and on a personal note, to Alice who found me exhausted on a step after the race and got me back to the hotel with kind words and gentle encouragement.